Scientists Reconstruct the Ancient Colors of Archaeopteryx Wings

Reconstructing what ancient creatures look like is a difficult process, especially when it comes to imagining what colors that might have had. Now, though, scientists are using new methods to figure out the color of fossils, reconstructing what the ancient Archaeopteryx may have looked like while it was alive.

In this case, the scientists used new imaging technologies. They incorporated scanning electron microscopy in order to identify melanosomes, which are melanin-containing pigment structures, in modern feathers. This, in turn, allowed them to reconstruct the feather color in the iconic Archaeopteryx.

Yet there's been some controversy when it comes to the coloration of this ancient creature. Two competing papers have offered alternative interpretations of the bird-like creature's coloration. One stated that Archaeopteryx had feathers that were both black and white. The other stated that the fossilized microbodies in the feather represented bacteria instead of melanosomes, which would have made color interpretation impossible.

Now, the scientists have taken a closer look at this issue. In the end, they found new insights into the Archaeopteryx feather.

"The inner vane of the Archaeopteryx feather, which they claimed was white, we instead found to be packed with black melanosomes," said Ryan Carney, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This is cirtical because white feather color is only produced in the absence of melanosomes."

The scientists used additional analytical methods in order to investigate the preservation of melanosomes in a variety of other fossils. The new chemical method allowed them to detect actual melanin molecules, which are associated with the melanosome-like microbodies in fossilized feathers and skin. This showed definitively that melanosomes can be preserved in the fossil record.

So what did the animal look like? Archaeopteryx had feathers that were matte black with a darker tip. This coloration would have provided structural advantages to the plumage during this early evolutionary stage of dinosaur flight.

The findings reveal a bit more about this ancient creature and show how it probably looked during life. This, in turn, paves the way for understand how other species looked.